Fort Worth weekly gazette. [volume] (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1887-05-27

day swoop upon the squadron. No hid
| ing behind the earthworks. No digging
in OF cavalry spurs at the sound of re-
treat. Mightier than all the fortresses
on all the coasts is the ocean when it
| bombards fiotilla. In the cemeteries
Tor Federal and Confederate dead are the
! bodies of most of those who fell on the
land. But where those are who went
down in the war vessels will not be
known until the sea
GIVES UP IT'S DEAD.
The Jack tars knew that while loving
arms might carry the men
who fell on the land and
bury them with solemn liturgy
and the honorS of war, for the bodies of
those who dropped from the ratlines into
the sea or went down with all on board
under the stroke of 8 gunbost there re-
manned the shark sud the whale, and the
endless tossing Of the sea which cannot
rest. How will you find their graves for
this national decoration? Nothing but
the archangePs trumpet shall reach their
lowly bed. a few of them have been
gathered into naval cemeteries of the
land, and you will garland the sod that
covers them, but who will put flowers on
the fallen crew of the exploded Westteld
and Shawsheen, and the suHken South
field and the Winfield Scott. Bullets
threatening in front, bombs threatening
from from above, torpedoes threatening
from beneath, and the ocean with its
reputation of 5000 years for shipwreck
lying all around, am | not right in saying
it requires q special courage for the navy?
1t looks picturesque and beautiful to
see war vessel going out through the
Narrows, sailors IL q new rig singing:
a life on the ocean wave,
\ home on the rolling deep
the colors gracefully dipping to passing
ships, the decks immaCulstely clean, and
the guns at quarantine firing q parting
salute. But the poetry is sll gone out OF
that ship as it comes out,of that engage
ment, It's decks red with human blood,
wheel-hOuse gone, the cabins q pile of
shattered mirrors and destroyed furni-
ture, steering wheel broken, smoke-staCk
crushed, u hundred-pound WhitWorth
rifle shot having left its mark from port
| to starboard, the shro uds rent away,
ladders splintered and decks ploughe
up, and smoke blackened and scalded
corpses lying among these who are gasp
ing their last gasp far away from home
and kindred, whom they love as much as
| we love
WIFE AND PARENTS AND CHILDREN.
| Not waiting until you are dead to put
upon your grave wreath of recognition,
this hour we put on your living brow the
garland of nations praise.
o, men CT the Western Gulf squadron,
of the Eastern Gulf squadron, of the
South Atlantic squadro3, OF the North
Atlantic squadron, Of the Mississippi
! squadron, of the Pacific squadron, of the
| West India squadron and of the Potomac
fotilla, hear our thanks lake the Dene-
| dictiOn of our churches. Accept the hos
| pttalides of the nation. 1t we had our
way we would get you not only pension,
but home and 8 princeIy wardrobe, and
an equipage and banquet while you
! live, and after your departure g Catafalque
and mausoleum of sCUlptured marble,
with a model of the ship in which you
won the day. 1t is considered a gallant
thing when in naval fight the flagship
with the blue ensign goes ahead up
a river or into a bay, its ad-
miral standing in the shrouds watch
ing and giving orders. But l have
to tell you, oh veterans of the Ameri-
can navy If you are as loyal to Christ as
you were to the government, there is q
flagship sailing ahead OF you of which
Christ is the admiral, and He watches
from the shrouds, and the heavens are
the blue ensign, and He leads you toward
the harbor, and all the broadsides of
earth and hell cannot damage you, and
ye, whose garments were once red wit n
your own blood, shall have robe washed
snd made white in the blood of the Lamb
Then strike eight bells, High noon IN
heaven.
With such anticipations, oh veterans of
the American navy, charge you bear up
under the aches and weaknesses that you
still carry from the war-times. You are
not as stalWart as you would have been
but for that nervous strain and for that
terrific exposure. Let every ache and
pain, instead of depressing,
REMIND YOU OF YOUR FIDELITY.
The sinking of the WeehaWken,
off Norris island, December 6, 1868,
was MYSTERY. She was not under fire.
The sea was not rough. But Admiral
Dahlgren, from the deck of the flag
steamer Philadelphia, saw her gradually
sinking, and finally she struck the
ground, but the flag still hoated above the
wave in the sight of the shipping. 1t was
afterwards found that she sunk from
weakness through injuries in previous
service. Her plates had been knocked
loose in previous times. So you have
in nerve, and muscle, and bone, and
dimmed eyesight, and difficult hearing,
and shortness of breath, many intima-
lions that you are gradually going down.
1t is the service of twenty-three years
ago that Is telling on you. Be of good
cheer. We owe you Just as much as
though your life-blood had gurgled
through the scuppers of the ship in the
Red River expedition, or as though
you had gone down with the
Melville off Hatteras. Only keep
your flag flying as did the illustrious
Weehswken.
Good cheer, my boys! The memory
of man is poor and all that talk about the
country never forgetting those who
fought for it Is an untrutn. 1t does for
get. Witness how the veterans some
times had to turn the hand-orgens on the
street to get their families living. Wit
ness how ruthlessly some of them have
been turned out Of office that some blost
of a politician might take their place.
Witness the fact that there is not man
or woman now under thirty years of age
who has any full appreciation OF the four
years. maTtyrdOm of 1861 to 1865 inclu-
sive. But while men may forget, God
never forgats. He remembers the swing
ing hammock. He remembers the fore
castle. He remembers the frozen ropes
of that January tempest. He remembers
the ampuLa.ion without sufficient ether.
He remembers the horrors of that deaf
ening night when forts from both sides
belched on you their fury and the heavens
gloWed with the ascending and